Hair of Gold: Just Right (Urban Fairytales Book 6) (17 page)

I watched him go. Claim the maiden? What the hell did these men think was going to happen even if they somehow made through the wall of death? Did they think they were entitled to the woman beyond? That somehow their presence would wake her, and they would live happily ever after? This was no fairytale, this was real life. I agreed with the caretaker, the man had been a fool.

We just stood there gazing at the sight of the Black Crypt for a few minutes then Gretel took a single flower from a bunch on a nearby grave which had a marker that read, “Margret James – Loving Wife and Mother.”

I cocked my head at her, and she stepped up to the blackened vines, I inhaled sharply and held her back with a hand on her shoulder, I asked in a whisper, “What are you doing?”

She smiled up at me and moved my hand away with gentle pressure from her own, and shrugged as she carefully laid the flower on the vines, being sure to keep her flesh away from them. Then she stepped back and exhaled sharply, saying with purpose, “Right then, shall we go on the hunt?”

We both smiled at her and turned toward the cemetery entrance, I hesitated when I saw a familiar little girl watching us, her tattered dress rustling in a non-existent wind. She seemed surprised I was looking right at her, and she smiled then stepped back to be swallowed by the shadow of a great oak.

I absently smiled back as my hand reached up to touch the chilled spot on my cheek. Isla was watching. It saddened me a little, knowing she was somehow tethered to this world, not allowed to pass on to the next, watching the world that was no longer hers... always watching.

Before long we were following the crowds across the bridge to the walls of London. Those walls were even more looming and imposing than they were from a distance. They were simply massive on a scale that boggled my mind. I absently wondered how many millions of tons of ore it had taken to construct such an engineering marvel as that.

Things slowed at the gates, people freely flowed out, heading into the outer city, but lines formed going in. As we slowly made our way forward, I saw heavily armed guards, in a line. They were pricking the finger of every man, woman, and child with silver needles. That was like the fenced town we had stayed in during our journey to the Tower of the Sea. They wouldn't allow anyone with the Lycan Contagion into the walled portion of the city, to protect the Clean Bloods.

We offered our fingers and Hansel and Gretel were cleared to enter, but the man trying to prick my finger with his needle was having difficulty getting through the tough pads of my finger. I gave an apologetic look to him then offered the soft skin of my wrist instead. He hesitated then sighed and stabbed my wrist, and I bit back a growl.

He watched the blood and when there was no reaction to the silver he nudged his chin through the gates and I inclined my head in thanks and stepped through to an amused Gret. I rolled my eyes at her. “Easily amused are we?”

She showed me a toothy grin and said in her mock Russian accent, “Da.”

I stepped past her and down the huge cobbled road grumbling, “I hate you.”

She was thoroughly amused at that as well as she chuckled and hustled to catch up, looping her arm in mine as we strode forward.

We paused when Hansel cleared his throat. We looked back at him just standing there, arms crossed as he asked with an eyebrow quirked. “Do you know where you are going? Where to start?” My girl and I exchanged looks then shrugged at the same instant, causing us to smile.

He asked like a patient parent, “Do you plan on just asking, 'Excuse me, but could you please point us in the direction of the dark druid Baird? We're here to bring him to justice by bear or by blade.' It doesn't sound like a solid plan.” His eyebrow was still cocked as our smiles melted away. He was right, we had no clue where to find our quarry and this city was so huge and sprawling.

Then my eyes widened slightly, and I said imperiously, “Da, Han. As a matter of fact, I know just where to start, brother mine.”

I reached out and lightly grabbed the arm of a boy running past. He turned to look up at me, and he got an infatuated look on his face. I smiled brightly at the boy. “Do you know where we might find the Blue Bull?” Gretel's eyes widened a bit, and her smile snuck back onto her face. We played the Scales game for now.

The boy eagerly said, “Yes miss. It's in Cheap End. A lady doesn't want to be going there, the brigands and mercenaries all make trouble there.”

I smiled at his concern and shrugged, screwing my face up a little and waved my hand breezily about as I asked, “Cheap End?”

He chuckled and said, “You're not from around here are you miss?”

I shook my head and said, “Nyet.”

He backed into the crowd, pointing east before he turned to run off, looking back over his shoulder with a smile.

I winked at the boy and called out, “Thank you.”

Gretel was chuckling, and she said, “The poor boy was smitten with you. Did you see his blush.”

Hansel said to her as he walked past us again, heading east, “You're one to talk.” He chuckled as he arched his back to avoid the blow he knew was coming from his sister. We followed after the smartass while I grinned at the fact that Gret was as smitten with me as I was her.

By and by, we finally found our way to Cheap End, after stopping to ask directions a time or two. The further we moved into the slums the more uneasy the three of us felt. I could taste dark magics on the breeze and so could the siblings. This was where all the unsavory congregated, they drew together like flies. I felt for the poor in the area who couldn't afford to move elsewhere, to get away from the corruption and decay we saw around us.

We got directions from a butcher and wound up at the intersection of two winding back alleys at a tavern marked with a simple wood plank with blue lettering on it that read the Blue Bull. One of the big glass paned windows was boarded up, but the other was still intact, and we could see through the grime to a busy bar with a sawdust floor.

There was a dangerous mix of armed men and unsavory kinds. It didn't look to be safe for even those with the hardest constitution. We entered through the heavy wood door and had to step over a man who was passed out by the door, a mug of ale still in his fist. The tavern was noisy and overcrowded. Men yelling to be heard over each other just adding to the cacophony of sound that assaulted us.

I sneezed at the rank smells that greeted us. I forced myself to breath through my mouth as I made out urine, bile, sweat and stale liquor in the heavy air. We looked around, and there was a table near the back with a man who appeared to be asleep in a chair, a hand on his mug of ale on the table, his feet up on another chair.

We stepped up to him, and I slapped his feet off the chair. He sat up with a start, a dangerous look on his face. He started to smile up at me lasciviously but Hansel stepped up behind me, and I glanced back to see a dangerously serious look on his face that I had only ever seen when he was protecting his sister. I blinked, he was using that look for me now too? The man swallowed and stood, taking his mug and melting into the crowd.

Hansel looked quite proud of himself and held a chair out for me to sit. He repeated the process for his sister before taking a seat himself. We all turned to observe the tavern, to get a feel for it and the people. To categorize and assess threat levels of all around us before we started asking any questions.

I sighed when a man stepped up to us and put a foot up on the last chair at the table, leaning an arm on his knee as he bent in toward Gretel. This would be the lackey that was like the canary in the coal mine, sent to harass us so the rest could gage our threat level as well.

He said loudly for all around to hear as they all quieted to watch the spectacle, “Well aren't you a sweet little thing? You here for some excitement are you?” He was reaching a hand out to her hair, and I gave a full-throated Kodiak growl that shook the dust from the chandelier above and made the flames of the candles in it dance.

My hand shot out and grabbed the man's fingers before they could touch my girl. I twisted, and there was a loud popping and crunching sound as fingers dislocated and bones snapped. The force of it twisted the man off of the chair and onto his knees on the ground as he howled in pain.

I continued the motion bringing his arm behind his back, and I held him there a moment as Gretel said in a low and dangerous tone, “My woman doesn't like scum touching me.” I growled again, louder in the silent bar and shoved him violently up and out. It caused him to stumble to his feet and move off into the crowd, cradling his maimed hand in the crook of his other arm.

Men roared in laughter, some clinked their mugs together in a salute, and everything went back into motion as the sound level rose again. Everyone satisfied that we belonged in there. I asked to my companions, “Why must men play these games?” I grinned and added, “Present company excepted, of course, Han.”

He rolled his eyes and looked past me and held up three fingers. A barmaid who looked tough as nails came over with three mugs of a strong smelling ale and placed them on the table. Hansel gave her a coin, and we turned back to watching the bar as we sipped at the surprisingly good drink. I had to chuckle, the Scales hadn't lied, it was a stout ale.

Before long, we decided it was time to start asking questions when a man in what looked to be old leather battle armor, sat down at the table. He was a rough looking man who moved with the surety and precision of a dangerous man who had seen and committed lots of violence.

He was middle aged and his dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, had hints of silver streaking through it and his closely cropped beard and mustache. His scarred hands looked strong and at the ready to draw one of the multiple blades adorning his armor.

We just looked at the man as he turned his gaze on each of us in turn, taking in our postures and weapons, then he addressed Hansel, “I figure bounty hunters or mercenaries. If it is the former then who are you hunting? If the later, nobody takes a contract around here without going through me first.”

Hansel didn't say a word as he regarded the man then he turned his head to me. The man changed his posture ever so slightly to make drawing on me easier as he said, “Alright, so you're the one in charge.”

I cocked an eyebrow, “And you are?”

He shrugged and said matter of factly, “People just call me Boss.”

I took a tug of ale then wiped my mouth on the back of my sleeve and said, “Well I don't.”

He grinned at that and said, “Lincoln.”

I inclined my head, keeping his hands in my peripheral vision as I said, “Kat, and this is Gretel and Hansel.”

He nodded to each of us then turned his eyes to me expectantly. I took another swig then pushed my mug away from me and placed both hands on the table, palms down as I regarded the man and the way many of the patrons were watching. Then I said, “Neither, though we are looking for a Romanian man. Baird. It is said he's been seen here in London.”

This made him pause then he leaned in and spoke more quietly. “The dark mage?” He shook his head. “That is one man you do not want to find. Rumor has it he consorts with demons.”

My heart started racing, he knew of him. I asked quickly, “So he is here in the city?”

The man regarded me a moment then nodded and said, “The men I have sent to watch him have met with mysterious accidents.”

I nodded. “Death follows in his wake.”

He sat back in the chair and relaxed a bit and smiled at me. “So why do you seek this man?”

I knew his posture, he was probing to see what was in it for him if he gave us the information we needed. I narrowed my eyes and said, “We are here to bring the dark druid to justice. He has harmed too many, and took my family from me. We will not allow him to continue.”

Gretel laid a hand on my arm to show the man we were united in purpose.

His eyes widened slightly, and he seemed to reevaluate me then my companions. He sighed and took a breath then said, “The old monastery. It has been abandoned since Dame Gothel killed all the monks, and that Rapunzel woman and her companion took her down. This Baird has been seen entering the building at night.”

I nodded and started to stand, but his hand shot out and grabbed my arm, though not threateningly. He locked eyes with me, and he grinned, mirth twinkling in his eyes as he said, “When you fail, I'll take that silvered blade of yours as payment for the information.”

I placed my hand on his and squeezed as I moved it off me and onto the table in front of him. Applying just enough pressure not to break bones and I gave him a predatory grin. “When we succeed, you're welcome to try,” I growled low after that.

He chuckled and rubbed his hand, wincing a little. He said as he stood and started back toward the bar, “You, I like Kat. I think I'll be sad to see you dead.”

My girl snorted and just took my arm and the three of us made our way out and into the alley. Hansel inclined his head to Lincoln as we left, and the man raised a mug to us. It was starting to get dark out. We looked around and then chuckled at each other. Just where the hell was the old monastery?

After asking around, we found ourselves standing just off of a wide lane in front of a tall building, watching a man walking down the dark streets with a candle on a pole, lighting the oil streetlights along the streets.

All of the windows of the structure were boarded up, and it looked to be in disrepair. It was an imposing building and probably looked almost regal in its simplicity when it had been in use for religious pursuits.

There were people still on the street, scurrying about. I had the feeling that London never slept, there seemed to be all sorts of things happening all about, but everyone seemed to avoid this particular block. And I knew why as I could feel the dark magics prickling my skin and could just barely pick up the hints of brimstone and sulfur in the air. Demons were about inside the structure. How many more of the ungodly creatures had he called into the mortal realm?

People naturally avoid places of darkness on instinct without consciously knowing they are doing it. It is something left over from the dark ages when mankind was ruled by their baser, more primal survival instincts to avoid bigger and badder predators.

Rain started drizzling, it seemed to do that a lot here on the islands. We took a minute to skirt the perimeter of the building on all sides from a block away. There didn't seem to be anything obvious or out of place that would draw the attention of outsiders.

Besides the feel and stink of magic around the place, there were no indications that anyone was inside. We scanned all the visible rooftops and found no lookouts. We had no idea if what we were all feeling inside was Baird or not.

I shrugged at my companions and said, “There's nothing for it then.” And I started toward the front door.

Gret laid a hand on my arm to hold me back as I stepped into the lane. She said with a half smile, “We can't just barge in the front door. We don't know what could be waiting on the other side.”

I grinned and asked, “What would you have us do?”

I glanced at Hansel, who had his whip already off his shoulder, he said, “I'm with Kat, all this skulking about is getting us nowhere, and I'm getting sick of this dreary weather out here.”

She sighed, looked at us, and said as she cocked her head cutely at me, “Fine but let's show a bit of finesse and not barge in like a bear.” I tried not to smile at her bear jab.

She glanced around and said, “I saw a small side entrance just around the comer there.” She indicated with her hand, and we followed her as we stayed in the long shadows cast by the flickering streetlamps. I heard the rain sizzling on the hot metal of the lamps as it struck.

She paused when we got to the corner then turned to look at the cobblestones just off the walk and then looked up to the roof. There was a decorative ledge one story down from the parapet, and she whispered, “Full circle. This was the last place Rapunzel and Eve were seen when Rapunzel pulled her up from that ledge after Dame Gothel fell to her death on the street.”

After a couple heartbeats, she tore her eyes from the ledge where she had been looking intently, looking for something to explain where the women had gone after defeating the vrajitoare.

We stepped around the corner and up to a boarded up, steel bound door. She made an ushering motion to me, palm up. I whispered as I looked at the heavy planks that were secured over the opening with large square nails, “Sure, now you need the bear, da?”

She nodded and winked, saying in hushed tones, “Da.” I reached out with my left hand and grabbed a board and my nails sunk into the wood, splintering it, and I tugged with a fraction of my power, trying not to make too much noise. The wood was old and weathered and cracked and groaned as the nails pulled out of the outer wall with a horrendous racket.

I exhaled in frustration and hissed, “Well they know we are here now.” I yanked the board free and then just slammed my shoulder into the remaining planks and the door. With a loud crashing sound the boards snapped, and the door was pulled out of the wall on its iron strap hinges. It fell to the floor of the corridor beyond with a resounding boom.

Hansel stepped past me and into the space, saying, “Subtle.”

I snorted then called upon the Kodiak Amulet, and my eyesight sharpened, and the pitch black corridor brightened. Gretel's hands and small dagger started growing green as did Hansel's whip, casting an eerie glow in my augmented sight.

Somewhere below demons screeched and we heard heavy clattering on some nearby stairs, heading up. Da, they knew we were there now. I roared in challenge, and the boarded up windows shook in protest, reverberating in resonance with my roar.

We charged down the corridor, and I caught fleeting glances of the large space beyond the imposing columns. There was a grand staircase at the center of the space that went up, the sounds were approaching from further down the hall, though.

We reached a place where the dusty marble walls had trails in the dust on the floor. We could hear the beasts approaching from behind the wall like an oncoming storm. Gretel started looking around, running her fingers along the seams in the marble wall panels saying, “There has to be some sort of release somewhere.”

Before we could help her the marble panel swung out with almost explosive force and some sort of half dog, half boar creature dove at my throat, two more were following close behind. I caught the first one by one of the sharp tusks that protruded from its jowls that were lined with far too many needle-sharp teeth.

I swung it at the other two like a club. I heard a satisfying crunch as bone snapped as they collided. They screamed out in a squealing that was that eerie scream of multiple overlapping anguished cries from tortured souls I was coming to associate with demons.

We were all in motion as the three tumbled back down the stairs that were hidden behind the wall as other nightmares of various types scrambled over them to get at us. I covered my eyes when the world was lit by a crackling green sun as my girl hit them with her arcane lightning.

The lead attackers didn't even have time to scream as their flesh was torn from them, and their bones charred. The ones immediately following were blown back, giving us room to get through the secret panel.

There were others scrambling over the fallen, slipping on the black ichor of the bodies which were already starting to dissolve, as the demons that inhabited them returned to the underworld. These were all lesser demons, it seemed that Baird had changed his method of operation. Had we pressed him so much over the years that he hadn't had the time or resources to summon more powerful ones who could give him the power he craved?

The incoming swarm howled in rage, and I roared back as I dove into them, blade slashing. They were easily driven back, and I started to get a sinking sensation in my gut as Hansel's whip handily struck down the stragglers getting around me and Gretel's power lanced through others.

Not only were these lesser demons, but they also wouldn't be much of a threat to well-armed mortals. My eyes snapped wide, and my stomach lurched as I felt a surge of corrupting magics deep below come billowing up the curving stairs. Something huge was happening below the streets of London.

I bellowed in a voice that sounded more like an animal than human, “They're just a distraction to keep us busy! Whatever he's doing down there, we're pushing him to work faster.”

The siblings nodded as they stood back to back to prepare for the next wave. I growled out, “I'm heading down.” I picked up the rapidly decaying body of a vaguely reptilian and humanoid creature, and charged into the incoming swarm, using the body as a battering ram.

Gretel called out, “Kat, don't split up!”

I heard them charging after me as lightning competed with the snapping of the whip to raise the noise level in the confined space to an earsplitting volume. I dropped the body and caught the tail of a winged bat-like creature who was leaping into a glide over my head and toward my girl. I stopped it just inches away from raking its claws across her face. She stabbed he blade into its eye as its skin bit at me like a thousand little mouths trying to devour me.

In the flashes of light from the whip, I noted the creature was covered in scales which appeared to be faces of tortured souls, and the mouths were moving. Whispering temptations and the ones at my hand were trying to tear pieces of flesh from me to feed their starving torment.

I looked appalled at it and was thankful for the thick pads of skin on my hands which looked more claw like every time I called on my brother's strength. I growled at the dying creature and slammed its back through the stone tread of a step with a crunch.

We must have gone down three or four stories and had to be below the city's famous sewers when we appeared to be running out of demons. An eerie amber glow was coming up from below. I separated the head and right arm from the last of the minor demons and cocked my head.

I could hear the heartbeats of Hansel and my girl beating rapidly and their breathing which was heavy with exertion. Farther down, from where the light was emanating, I could hear a man chanting in an archaic tongue. I knew that voice. Baird. He was going to pay for what he did to my family, and before I sent him to whatever hell would take him, I was going to get him to reverse whatever his unhinged mother had done to them.

Over the smells of rot, decay, and brimstone, I could smell the sweat of my companions and the sharp tang of their adrenaline. I absently stomped on one of the wild boar demons who was dragging it's maimed body toward me, with a crunch and wheeze, it ceased its motion. I inhaled again, nostrils flaring, then I growled as I smiled. I could smell fear mixed with desperation and... excitement?

I growled deep and low and said, “We must make haste, whatever he is up to, it is almost finished.” I started down in a hurry, with them at my back. I could feel my girl there, her familiar magics let me know that she had my back.

We burst out into some sort of natural subterranean cavern, and they faltered. I hissed internally, they were distracted in caves the same way I was in the boughs of a tree. No matter how strong we become, our childhood traumas stayed with us like scars on our psyches. I paused and turned to cup her cheek as she looked around wide-eyed.

I whispered, “I'm here at your back, love. Let's end this and get you two out of here.”

She took a deep cleansing breath, then nodded firmly once.

I glanced up at Hansel, and he tightened his hand on his whip and gave a confident nod as well.

We stalked forward through the myriad of shadows cast by the amber glow. Baird's chanting was reaching a fevered pitch beyond the next set of rock formations stretching up to support the arching roof of the cavern. Water dripped everywhere. I could feel a huge pressure from magics that felt, wrong, twisted into something dark that shouldn't be.

We stepped out from behind the rocks to see Baird with a wild and maniacal look on his face, he was clearly bereft of his sanity as he chanted inside a giant circle that was drawn out in blood and wax and sand on the floor of the cavern.

There were dead bodies of women and children at five points of a witch's star inside that circle and candles flickered along the lines lighting the sand that formed another circle with arcane symbols and talismans around it.

In the middle of it all, a pulsating tear in reality was forming, and I realized this was a gateway between this world and the demon realm. He was summoning something, and whatever it was it was powerful judging by the amount of energy the dark druid was pouring into the rift in reality.

But where was he getting such power? He was not the level of his mother who I doubted could channel that much energy. Then I looked around for the first time since we laid eyes on him, as his chanting became more incessant, reaching toward a crescendo.

The walls of the cavern were lined with alcoves which seemed to pulsate with amber energy. Frozen inside that foul-tasting energy honeycomb were dozens of people, beasts, and some which looked like mythical creatures. They all looked to be frozen in the throws of agony, and they looked so drained, on the precipice between life and death. Some were long dead with silent screams on their frozen faces.

I realized I could see amber energy being pulled from them and it tangled together to go through a focus Baird was holding. That was how he was doing this, he was somehow draining the life force from his victims frozen in the amber magics of the alcoves.

I growled. This had all been down here long before Baird could have learned of it. What had the monks in the monastery above been doing down here? I thought they were men of the one God, what did they need these dark magic cages for? Had they been draining the power and life from their victims for nefarious purposes?

I had been so distracted that I hadn't noticed that two of the rock piles beside us started to move suddenly, and they yowled out a grating and grinding bellow that sounded like boulders sliding together as they slammed into the three of us. Sending us tumbling toward one of the alcoves pulsating with amber energy with the bodies of two long-dead humanoid victims who had pointed ears, like the fairy-folk or elves of legend were supposed to possess.

I shouted, “Nyet!” As I grasped at my Gretel as she and Hansel slammed into the energy and seemed to melt into it, unmoving, frozen in time. Just before I struck the energy web, an icy wind whipped through the cavern with gale force and slammed into me, knocking me aside to collide into the cavern wall instead of becoming trapped like my new family.